A new biotech startup, Semma Therapeutics, announced that it seeks to fight diabetes via translating technology from the lab of Doug Melton at Harvard to the clinic. Update: Note that the firm was recently acquired by Vertex. Another major player in cell therapy-based arena for Diabetes is most likely good news for patients. Quoted in the Boston […]
New biotech Semma Therapeutics stem cell diabetes arena Read More »
Over the years I’ve often written about how unlicensed stem cell clinics and their physicians are putting patients at risk. In most if not all cases they are doing this simply for their own personal monetary gain. I do think that some of them truly believe they are helping patients, but still that doesn’t excuse
10 ways non-compliant stem cell clinic docs jeopardize their careers Read More »
One of the hottest topics in the biomedical world in 2015 is heritable human genetic modification including via germ cells. There is an unsettling sense that genetically modified human germ cells and eventually GMO human beings are likely coming even if science and society are not ready for it. There are a hodgepodge of laws against human
Proposed Moratorium on Genetic Modification of Human Germ Cells Read More »
Some American stem cell clinics that operate without FDA approval can give the appearance of being in the mainstream of academic stem cell research. Sometimes they go a step further to hint at or even say that they have some kind of federal approval as we saw in the past with the Stem.md website. Why
Spock was always my favorite Star Trek character, and even if Leonard Nimoy was not Spock, it seemed to me that there was much of Nimoy in Spock. And for many of us scientists there was some of Nimoy and Spock in us too. The news of Nimoy’s death was a bit of a shock
Could Spock Style Stem Cells Have Saved Leonard Nimoy? Read More »
How much do these stem cell treatments cost? Stem cell treatments of various kinds are now widely available in America at more than 100 stem cell clinics offering non-FDA approved interventions for dozens of conditions. American patients are often recruited on the Internet to travel around the US or to Mexico and other countries. How
How Much Do Stem Cell Treatments Really Cost? Read More »
On Thursday here at UC Davis School of Medicine we held our second annual Stem Cell Ethics Symposium. The symposium was organized by Drs. Mark Yarborough and Nanette Joyce as well as me. In this post I report on key take homes from the meeting and summarize the specific talks. As far as I know, this is one of the few
Meeting review of unique stem cell ethics symposium at UC Davis School of Medicine Read More »
I like football and for the 2nd year in a row, my favorite team the Seahawks are playing in The Super Bowl after their miracle finish against the Packers. I don’t believe in stem cell miracles for the most part, but I do wonder how many players on the two teams tomorrow have had “stem
Super Bowl full of stem cells? Read More »
A new stem cell clinical trial for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in Canada is raising hopes amongst patients and researchers. According to the Ottawa Citizen, the trial will be led by Dr. Mark S. Freedman (pictured, photo from Ottawa Hospital), director of the multiple sclerosis research unit at The Ottawa Hospital and “The Canadian trials which
Landmark New Stem Cell Trial for Multiple Sclerosis Raises Hopes Read More »
When I started blogging in 2010 the stem cell arena was a very different place including the fact I could count the number of US stem cell clinics on one hand. This blog, called The Niche for many years, was just “Knoepfler Stem Cell Blog” back then. Also, back then the hot topic was the
Stem cell clinics, FDA, & giant, unapproved for-profit human experiments Read More »